Wonderbag

As always I like to find products and companies that I feel give back to communities and help alleviate poverty related issues in developing countries. The Wonderbag is such a product. A Wonderbag is essentially an insulated cooker. You combine your ingredients in a pot, bring it to a good, hard boil and put the pot in the bag. The food then continues to cook slowly on the remaining heat energy.

The Wonderbag arrives in a vacuum bag and must be fluffed up and allowed to fully decompress before using. You can put a pot of hot water in the bag or set it in a warm place to speed up the process, but it needs several hours or overnight. It will continue to fluff up over the first couple uses. It is recommended to wrap your pots in a towel and place a folded towel in the bottom. This is to prevent soiling the Wonderbag, catching stray condensation and in the case of cast iron to prevent damaging the fabric. I use a silicone hot pad for the bottom of the bag.

Just loosen the drawstring and place the pot in the bottom. Cover with the top and pull the string until the bag is closed up, it doesn't need to be tight.

The pot you use can be quite large, though today I used something less than three quarts. I made quinoa in a microwave cooker, after a few minutes of boil time I put it in the Wonderbag. Actually I forgot about it, but it wasn't overdone, and cool enough to put it in the fridge. No big deal as it was destined for a chilled quinoa salad.

The inside of the bag is about fourteen inches across, and as you can see, the insulation pillows puff up a good bit so be mindful that a fourteen inch pot may not fit well. The key is the insulation which needs to not get excessively compressed. I should note the bottom is actually semi-rigid closed cell foam, the remainder is shredded reclaimed open cell foam.

The pot can also be quite deep, though remember big handles or knobs will likely get in the way. I usually put an old pillow on top just as an extra layer of insulation, and when the bag is not in use, I stuff it in the Wonderbag to help it keep it's shape when stored. I keep mine on top of the kitchen cabinets so it's always ready. Some people toss it on the couch as a throw pillow. You can also use the Wonderbag to keep things cool, insulation is insulation. It also works well for holding hot food during transportation to pot lucks, or just around the holidays in a crowded kitchen. Those casseroles will be just fine in the Wonderbag and moved into the dining room, out of the way. I have also used it for rising bread and on a cold day put a heating pad around the bowl, plastic over the top, and a thermometer to make sure I don't kill the yeast.

Cook times are much like using a crockpot on low, but you need to keep an eye on the temperature. If it cools too much, you'll be taking a risk of bacterial growth. Better to put the pot back on the stove before it gets too cool and heat it up and put it back in the Wonderbag. Generally speaking it takes hours before there is a problem. It also depends on the overall mass you put in the Wonderbag. Mostly full, heavy pots near the size limits of the Wonderbag will have the necessary mass to last long enough to do the difficult things like beans.